This invention relates to improved gauges and methods for measuring the diameter of a thread.
Though various types of gauges have been proposed in the past for measuring the diameter of a thread, none of these with which I am familiar has proven entirely satisfactory. Micrometer gauges can be utilized for the purpose, but are relatively expensive and require special contact elements for engaging the threads to be measured, with resultant difficulties in handling and less than optimum accuracy of measurement in most instances. Because of the difficulty of effectively and reliably measuring a thread, either internal or external, many gauges utilized in industry are merely go/no-go gauges which cannot determine the actual measurement of the thread but merely indicate whether it is less than a particular limiting dimension, or more than a particular limiting dimension.